UR22 mkII - no signal for Garageband

Steinberg Hardware UR Series
1

I’d like to record my piano music using UR22 mkII, a newish Mac, and Garageband.

I had this working on a much older Mac and with an older driver, but with the current updates (see below) I don’t even manage to get signal to Garageband. It seems Garageband doesn’t get any signal.

In the audio settings on my Mac, I can currently find two options for the input: MacBook Pro Microphone and Steinberg UR22mkII. If I chose the MacBook Microphone, my Mac is able to receive the signal from my piano. On the other hand, choosing UR22mkII, I see the note “The selected device has no input controls” and I don’t receive any signal from my piano. I’ve tried choosing “MacBook Microphone” for the input and getting the signal to Garageband this way, but it appears Garageband still doesn’t recognize the signal this way.

As I said, with an older Mac and with older drivers I was able to set this up, but with the updated configuration below Garageband just isn’t able to receive any signal. Any ideas on what’s causing this and how to fix this?

My specs:

  • MacBook Pro (a couple of years old)
  • macOS Catalina 10.15
  • Garageband 10.3
  • UR22 mkII 24 bit
  • Yamaha Steinberg USB Driver 2.0.4 for macOS 10.12.6 · 10.13.6* · 10.14.x* · 10.15.x* installed
2

I should add that an older thread (“UR22mkII does not longer Work with latest MacOS 10.15.7 (19H114) security update”, Dec 2020) suggests that the firmware of UR22 mkII might be the cause of the problem and needs to be updated (see the message written by davie_b in that thread). At least this explanation seems to be compatible with the symptoms I’m seeing, as my Mac doesn’t receive any signal with UR22 mkII as an input source. Could anybody comment?

If this is indeed the case and the firmware needs to be updated, I guess this will become quite a common problem when people update their MacOSes. Shouldn’t there be some guidelines for updating the firmware publicly available then?

3

I dont know s**t about macs really, but I seem to recall you do the settings for the soundcard in midi settings, not audio?

4

I now tried setting the input source through the midi settings, too, but the same problem remains.

UR22 mkII is recognized both in the midi and sounds settings, but my Mac is not able to receive any signal through it. It seems this is not so much of a problem with Garageband in particular than with MacOS Catalina in general. UR22 mkII firmware perhaps?

5

I now noticed the firmware update for UR22 mkII is actually already publicly dowloadable - I had somehow missed this. Installing the update made some progress because my Mac is now able to receive the signal (which I can confirm in the input levels in the sound settings). However, Garageband still doesn’t receive any signal. Could there still be some software glitch with Catalina or Garageband?

6

Hi Pianist
In a daw (like Garageband) you will typically need to set up the inputs and outputs you want to use. I´ll try to have a look, if i can start my old Air up.

7

Yes, I’ve done that. In the current version of Garageband it’s under Garageband > Preferences > Audio/MIDI > Devices. Here, I have input device: Steinberg UR22mkII.

For the record, I should add that I also installed the newest driver for MacOS (version 2.0.5) that was published yesterday (January the 12th, 2021). This was required to get the signal on my Mac. I also noted that in order to install the drivers, one has to unblock them as described here: https://helpcenter.steinberg.de/hc/en-us/articles/115001790330-macOS-Audio-interface-not-working-properly-cannot-be-selected-in-DAW-missing-in-Audio-MIDI-Setup

But for some reason Garageband still doesn’t receive any signal.

8

Well, my Air wont start the App Store haha, so i cant download garageband atm, but Ill keep rtying. I have the same soiundcard as you, so it should be relevant.